Ground broken for new Maugansville Elementary

April 25, 2007|by ERIN CUNNINGHAM

MAUGANSVILLE - Standing near her current school - a 70-year-old, one-story building with four portable classrooms - third-grader Brittani Jobe said she is looking forward to the day she will enter a new Maugansville Elementary School.

Brittani, who will be enrolled as a fifth-grader when the school opens in 2008, said her favorite features of the new 91,500-square-foot school are the lockers and the second floor.

After a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday at the site of the new school, Brittani said she will miss the Maugansville Elementary she has attended for three years.

"It would be nice if they would keep my school, too," she said. "So we could look out and say, 'Awwww, that's our old school.'"

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The existing Maugansville Elementary will be torn down to make room for a roadway into the new school, Assistant Superintendent for School Operations Boyd Michael said.

The new school will sit on 20.5 acres and have capacity for 735 students in prekindergarten to fifth grade. Features include a soccer field, several paved play areas and a new bus loop, along with increased parking.

The existing school is 38,161 square feet and has capacity for 318 students.

County Commissioners President John F. Barr said he was pleased that the architect, Bushy Feight Morin Architects Inc., and the contractor, Callas Contractors, are local. He also praised the hard work that went into planning for the new school.

"(I believe) it does take a village to build a school," Superintendent Elizabeth Morgan said.

Officials said the new Maugansville Elementary received a lot of support from the community, Washington County Commissioners and the state.

"This is just such an exciting day," Maugansville Principal Deb Favinger said. "I'm just so happy. For me, this is like having a baby."

Maugansville third-graders Alison Keelan and Zachary Toth also participated in the groundbreaking ceremony. Brittani, who turned 9 Tuesday, read a poem she wrote with a friend comparing her school to the new school.

"It's going to be a lot bigger," Alison said. "There's going to be a second floor, and a bigger library."

Work on the new school began earlier this month, and Michael said a barn and house at the site have been demolished and work on a sediment pond has begun.